Let’s start with scifi royalty – Star Trek’s William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

Next it’s two of my fave’s Murdock and Face from A-Team, Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict who also starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the original Battlestar Galactica respectively.

Here’s Star Trek: TNG star Patrick Stewart and Smallville’s John Schneider.

Ron Glass from Firefly was in the house, as was Bruce Davidson from Knight Rider.

Interested in seeing more? Check out YouTube for a variety of videos from the panels including William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy sharing the spotlight.

Photos: Newscom 

Photo Credit: Dan Harr/AdMedia

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When Stewie can’t get his questions answered at at Star Trek: TNG reunion con, he takes matters into his own hands. Like any smart toddler, he builds a transporter and beams the entire cast into his bedroom for his own one-on-one Q&A.

It happens tonight on the Family Guy episode “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven.”

Executive Producer David Goodman sat down with reporters this week to talk the episode and how it came about.

Let’s start with the why:

Goodman: Actually, you could ask last week why did we do a Back to the Future reference when the movie is 30 years old. I think we’re fans, especially Seth and I are huge fans of Star Trek and we realize that although there had been plenty of episodic television that brought back the cast of the original series, there, in fact, had not been, in fact, I wrote one of them for Futurama, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” where we reunited the original cast.

But Seth and I realized that nobody had really reunited the Next Generation cast and many of them had already appeared on our show. Next Generation was a hugely popular show in its day, I think they got 10 million or 12 million a week, I think we only get like 8 million, so it was a popular show. We make references to—we’re not necessarily going to reference the most current, although we do that. Our stock and trade is our own memories of shows we watched when we were younger.

How hard was it, gathering the cast together to do this episode?

Goodman: They were wonderful. Many of them had already done the show. I think we had, Patrick Stewart is in the family in a way, he does a recurring role on American Dad, and he’s been on Family Guy more than one once. We had Marina Sirtis, and Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn had already done the show. And the rest, Denise Cosby and Gates McFadden and Wil Wheaton were very game. They were fans of the show. Wil, when he came and did his voice, stayed for hours talking to the artists. It was not hard at all and they couldn’t have been nicer or more game to spoof themselves and have fun with this episode. We had a great time working with them. They were terrific.

Are there any “in” jokes, strictly for the fans?

Goodman: Well, there is a Tasha Yar joke in the episode. It’s pretty obvious from the minute she opens her mouth. And Denise was very game about it and anybody who is familiar with the series will get it right away. Anybody who’s not, it just plays as a joke on its own. And then for me, in fact, the scene that I’m in, it was the second scene that my character is in, I am pontificating about a piece of Star Trek, I’m having an argument with another Star Trek fan about a piece of what they call Star Trek cannon. And the argument is actually a real argument that Star Trek fans have, so I was very pleased with that.

Any concerns about mocking a show with such a devoted following?

Goodman: I think it’s easy to mock things that take themselves too seriously. I think again, Star Trek, it’s both wonderful and pompous at the same time. I really am a die-hard Trekkie, but there are moments in Star Trek where it takes itself very seriously.  And in fact, any kind of science fiction show where you have somebody in makeup playing an alien, that’s going to be easy to make fun of, even if it’s done perfectly.

Watch Family Guy tonight, March 29 at 9:00 on Fox with guest voices include Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes.
©2009 FOX BROADCASTING. CR: FOX

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Reuters UK reports that The Doctor himself, David Tennant, is earning rave reviews in the most talked about production of Hamlet in recent memory. It’s become the talk of England because not only because it stars the man the Daleks call The Oncoming Storm, but because Patrick Stewart plays Hamlet’s uncle/stepfather Claudius.

Some theatre purists’ eyes rolled into the backs of their heads with this one, but it’s not like they’re pulling these castings out of the Neutral Zone or something. Stewart was an acclaimed theatre star long before he “made it so” as Capt. Jean Luc Picard.  He was nominated for a Tony this year for Macbeth. Tennant has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company before, so this wasn’t nearly as big a risk as say, casting P-Diddy in A Raisin In the Sun.

Of course, the production has been deluged by rabid sci-fi fans looking to get memorabilia signed. The RSC has now banned the stars of the show from signing anything other than theatre-related items. OK, I know the original set piece from Star Trek:Generations would command a hefty price on eBay, but surely a program signed by these two stars is valuable as well? Not that there would be any online speculators in the crowd (cough, cough), right?

I think both these castings are inspired though. If it gets people that wouldn’t otherwise see The Bard into the theatre, that’s awesome. By the same token, if regular theatre goers start wondering what the heck a Romulan is and tune into some sci-fi that wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

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This production is a modernized version of the play that really gives Stewart something he can sink his teeth into.

Here’s how BAM describes the play:

Set in an industrial chamber that is equally military hospital ward, kitchen, torture chamber, and abattoir, Goold’s eerily modern Macbeth rings with the echoes of Stalinist terror. Macbeth is a decorated and loyal war hero, but loyalty only goes so far when greatness and history beckon and murder is only a matter of military coups and secret assassinations. Stewart’s genius is to reveal Macbeth as a moral man turned ruthless paranoid, one who understands exactly what he’s gaining—and what he’s losing—as he coldly disposes of the friends and family who stand in the way of his irrepressible ambition.

If you’re a Trek fan in the New York area, or even a Shakespeare fan, for that matter, hurry and get your tickets to this incredible event.  Stewart is a Shakespearean marvel and to see him take on one of the bard’s most enduring, tragic figures is a show not to be missed.

If you’re free on Sunday, Feburary 17, Stewart will be joining Columbia University Professor James Shapiro for an after show dialouge which is free with your paid admission.

Visit the BAM website for tickets and more information. 

Photo: NY Magazine

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